Joel Santo DomingoSystemax Venture VX2 B67IVUThe Systemax VX2 B67IVU may have a confusing name, but it's a good value in a performance PC. For half the price of many gaming machines, you'll get a solid PC that lets you quickly work on multimedia projects and then get back to some 3D leisure activities.

Vista Ultimate. Four gigs of system memory. A terabyte of storage. Very good multimedia performance. Good performance for the price. Less bloatware.

Cons

Uninspiring styling. GPU fan and drives are a little loud. Could use a data drive to back up its RAID 0 configuration.

Bottom Line

The Systemax VX2 B67IVU may have a confusing name, but it's a good value in a performance PC. For half the price of many gaming machines, you'll get a solid PC that lets you quickly work on multimedia projects and then get back to some 3D leisure activities.

All that is gold needn't glitter. Case in point: Inside the Systemax Venture VX2 B67IVU's ($2,499.99 direct) workaday case is a high-end multimedia system. Its speedy dual-core processor, the 2.66-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E6700, is the top of the line for Core 2 Duo. A performance-oriented RAID 0 hard drive array, 4GB of RAM, and a high-end nVidia GeForce 7950 GT graphics card round out this machine's potent innards. It even runs Windows Vista Ultimate, to boot. The VX2 B67IVU isn't a system for the multimedia enthusiast who's interested in outward bling. Rather, it's for someone who's looking to get strong performance for half the price of a boutique gaming system.

Similar Products

The Venture VX2 uses the same drab, utilitarian case that lower-priced Systemax Venture PCs use for lesser machines such as the mainstream Venture DH531IV. It's a tractable case. This is a system to consider if you like to tinker, but don't want to do the initial build yourself. There's lots of space for upgrades, including PCIe x16 slots on the Intel 975X-based motherboard for two additional graphics cards. Though it's not supported by many games yet, there is technology that can use the GPU in one of the graphics cards on a 975X-based motherboard as a coprocessor in order to make game physics more realistic. The system's case fan and its CPU cooling fan are slow-turning and quiet, though the fan on the GeForce 7950 GT card is a little loud. You can always swap out the graphics card later, but you can't customize the VX2 when you order the system on Systemax's Web site.

One of the benefits of going with a smaller PC producer is what you don't get. (Smaller is a relative term, however, since Systemax claims Tiger Direct and Global Business Furniture/Computer Supplies/Industrial Equipment/Government and Educational under its corporate umbrella.) You don't get a lot of the bloatware added by the big guys such as Dell, HP, and Gateway. You're spared the annoyware that asks you to sign up for an Internet provider and the rest of the stuff that savvy users tend to uninstall the instant they get their PC up and running.

Performance-wise, the VX2 has a lot going for it. Its gaming scores at the lower 1,280-by-1,024 resolution were smooth: 72 frames per second on Company of Heroes and 77 fps on Prey. Both games are less playable at 2,560-by-1,600 (13 and 29 fps, respectively). But if you wanted 2,560-by-1,600 resolution, you'd have to spend another $2,000 on a 30-inch panel such as the Dell Ultrasharp Widescreen, and you'd need a different class of gaming machine, one with a more powerful and expensive graphics solution, to use that display to full advantage. But the VX2 will support hard-core gaming at more sedate resolutions.

The VX2 rocked on our 2D performance tests: It took 1 minute 8 seconds on Windows Media Encoding and 42 seconds on Adobe Photoshop CS2. This is a system that you'd want on your desk if you're going to be doing some heavy lifting on multimedia tasks. You can edit that blog, YouTube video, or MySpace page while downloading music and listening to other music at the same time. I'd like to see the safety net of an additional data drive, as RAID 0 arrays have a tendency to fail when you least expect it. Still, you can get an external hard drive or add more internal drive space later.

I haven't had a chance to look at Gateway's DX420 (now DX430) series and Dell's XPS 410 since the switch to Vista, but I see those systems as the VX2's primary competition. It was hard trying to find a comparable system, since Gateway's and Dell's sites didn't let me configure a system exactly like the VX2 I reviewed here. The XPS 410with the same processor and hard drives, and an admittedly more expensive graphics cardwas over $500 more. Most of that cost can be attributed to the more expensive graphics card, but some of it comes from Dell's XPS services, such as a 15-month antivirus subscription and specialized XPS tech-support lines.

The Systemax Venture VX2 B67IVU is a system for people who want to buy a reasonably priced system for a few bucks less than one from the "big guys" such as Dell, Gateway, or HP. It's not flashy, but it has the performance chops to service multimedia hobbies such as digital photography, digital video, and moderate amounts of 3D gaming.

Systemax Venture VX2 B67IVU

good

Bottom Line: The Systemax VX2 B67IVU may have a confusing name, but it's a good value in a performance PC. For half the price of many gaming machines, you'll get a solid PC that lets you quickly work on multimedia projects and then get back to some 3D leisure activities.

Read More

About the Author

Joel Santo Domingo joined PC Magazine in 2000, after 7 years of IT work for companies large and small. His background includes managing mobile, desktop and network infrastructure on both the Macintosh and Windows platforms. Joel is proof that you can escape the retail grind: he wore a yellow polo shirt early in his tech career. Along the way Joel e... See Full Bio

Systemax Venture VX2 B67IVU

Systemax Venture VX2 B67IVU

Get Our Best Stories!

This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.